South Korea - Former Antivirus Chief Charged for Cheating

Ex-Chief Executive Officer of Media Port, Lee Shin-ja, 41, has been accused for unauthentic spreading of fake security software to around 4 Million users of Internet, as reported by Threregister on March 4, 2008.

Nowadays, people are becoming more cautious about the safety of their PCs so it has become much easier for the scammers to befool the users with a fraud warning.

In the present issue, aggressive marketing methods were used to threaten the users into buying the clean up software, Doctor Virus, of Media Port.

Around 4 Million users in South Korea reportedly tried the free security software, out of which 1.26 Million users bought the full package version. Prosecutors also claimed that Lee hired 2 programmers who are also accused for being accomplice in the scam that generated around 9.2 Billion Won ($9.2 Million) in the past three years (from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2007).

Customers registered complaints regarding the effectiveness and performance capability of the services resulted in an investigation carried out by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Consequently, Lee was caught followed with arrest of his two aides.

Doctor Virus's unnamed spokesperson said that the present version of the software has been accepted now. The spokesperson also said that they sorted out the problem when the prosecutors commenced the investigation. Fortunately, everything has been restored to normalcy.

Further, the conditions, due to the local market, lead the users in South Korea sometimes to operate several security software packages that can prove advantageous for the scammers.

Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos, Graham Cluley, said that like several other countries, it is common among South Koreans to operate several antivirus programs simultaneously. Maybe it is due to the fact that many of the homegrown solutions do not come with on-access scanner, as reported by HNS on March 5, 2008.

This situation maximizes the chances of users installing a product that they stumbled on the Internet. Graham also added that there are cyber crooks who are keen for expanding their market share and start threatening users to buy an ill-informed security software for their systems.